The following year after arriving in Los Angeles from New York, Mike Bello recruited several of L.A.'s best dancers and formed the first ever Salsa/Mambo On2 dance group in L.A. that included the Mambo Men and the Mambo Squad. He spent hundreds of hours training them in the highly syncopated shine routine that he choreographed and which they performed in the Hollywood Palladium for the Galavision sponsored International Salsa Festival as well as in the Hollywood Park Casino for the 1st Annual West Coast Salsa Congress. A dedicated teacher who espouses connection to the rhythm of Salsa music with his signature AOTC, or "Always On The Clave," Mike really cares about giving his students a sense of respect for dancing to the music! Through years of research and proven teaching methods, Mike has put together the most comprehensive salsa/mambo instructional material in the world. This has been accomplished by breaking down salsa music through the discreet rhythmic components that make up one of the most infectious as well as complex genres of music on the planet: Salsa. And it doesn't stop there! In his highly acclaimed booklet, a complete description of how to dance mambo (commonly and mistakenly referred to as salsa)  gives you the best opportunity to make a real and definitive way to connect your dancing to the rhythms that are presented. For many years, Mike has been holding workshops and seminars using material that is now on his CD's and DVD's. These very successful and well received classes have been periodically taught in Los Angeles (including the Albert Torres Productions Annual West Coast Salsa Congresses, Mike's very own Southern California Mambo Conferences) and at many of the salsa congresses (as well as part of his weekend workshop series) presented around the country. Salsa music is made up of traditional rhythms like the clave, the tumbao (conga), martillo (bongos), cascara (timbales), montuno (piano) and many

more! Once you understand the rhythms then you understand the music and you will finally align your rhythm of dance with the rhythms of salsa music. This material, much of which is presented independently as well as with the clave rhythm, is like a road map to the dance (mambo) and the music (salsa). Let's face it; for those individuals who want and need to improve, salsa/mambo dance classes are a necessity! Yet most classes never plainly cover how the music is broken down. In fact, most people learn to count their dance steps but have no direct relationship with the music. It's important to know the count beginning at beat one. But, where is beat one? The information on Mike Bello's AOTC Salsa/Mambo Practice & Counting CD, The Facts You Should Know About Salsa Music, Rhythm, Phrasing & Timing CD and his four-hour Salsa Rhythm 4 Dancers Seminar DVD's will give you a jump-start into clearly making complete sense of salsa music and mambo dancing. (Click on the above links to get complete and detailed information on the revolutionary instructional material!) The Salsa - Mambo Shines Video, Volume One adds visual content to the audio CD's with a 20-plus minute preface into the fundamentals of salsa and mambo by illustrating the clave, tumbao, the basic time-step pattern in both modern and classic mambo, foot positions and more. Approximately 60 minutes of shines (footwork) is then meticulously broken down in both timings. There are multiple shots and angles throughout this section so there is no way that you can be confused. You will be able to do the footwork in short order, provided, of course, you practice!